Mundus Obumbrandus

Yyyyeah, I’ve been away for quite a while. What can I say? Sometimes life gets in the way. *coughs* Without further ado, on to the blogging.

I’d like to bend your ear about one of the most dreaded concepts of computer gaming: the Bad End.

When someone starts reading a story, then can end up in just about any kind of world. It could be a beautiful utopia, it could be a soul-crushing dystopia, it could be any kind of place in any kind of time. The reader is usually invited in some way to identify with the protagonist, the hero of the tale. Whatever conflict faces Our Hero(tm), the reader is there with him or her, facing the same problems. The most basic expectation is that Our Hero will win in the end. No matter the hardship faced, we want Our Hero to save the day and come through, perhaps with more scars than what he or she started with, perhaps a bit less perky and innocent, but still ultimately victorious.

What do the readers feel when that doesn’t happen?

Logically speaking, most people who try to fight giants should be turned into sticky red stains on the bottom of their enemies’ feet. Logically speaking, someone who tries to change the world is more than likely to be disappointed. But how many people pick up a book and expect the story to be governed by logic? Especially if the book is of the science fiction or fantasy themes? In horror, it is more common for Our Hero to suffer defeat, but even then, I think people are hoping for the protagonist to buck the odds and win out.

But in some stories, they just don’t.

I know I hate it when that happens. I really, really do hate it. Watching the character through whose eyes you saw die or otherwise fail at the end is upsetting to me.

But I do understand that in some stories, it is necessary. You can’t always buck the odds. Some stories were written not to have the reader cheer, but to wring a tear from their eye. It may not sound nice, but stories are created to evoke all sorts of thoughts and emotions from the reader. Some writers even specialize in negative endings, for whatever reasons they may have, and they are still read quite eagerly.

I am not a huge fan of the concept, and even I have used it once or twice. Of course it helps that you don’t have to make the end the absolute worst it can be. There are shades of Bad to every Bad End. Save the world, but lose the love of your life. Get the love of your life, but lose the crown and the respect of your followers. Get neither girl nor gold, but live to fight another day, even if that other day is never written about. I’m sure anyone who reads this blog will get the idea.

And so this blog post has a more positive end.

Hmm, maybe it’d be wiser of me to just make Saturday the update day. I’ve been late two weeks in a row now… *cough* Anyway: Let’s talk about realism.

On the one hand, it is good if your creation is realistic. If people read your work and they find it believable. Using existing places that you’re familiar with is a good way to do this. A little research into local culture, or the sociological, political and economic situation in the time you’re writing about, it’s all good. Regardless whether you’re writing about something set on our dear old Mother Earth or on a fictional world of your creation, it is good to set the scene and achieve that feeling of realism.

But today I can’t help but remember how it can be bad to make it all too realistic. There is a certain author whose name I won’t mention. He writes little detective novels that you can buy for about ten euros a piece. While I found the main character to be rather unpleasant, I did admire the way the author set the scene and did his homework, constructing believable settings and conflicts.

Then one day I read a news article and I thought: “Hey, that happened in that novel, too.” I checked, and yes, the author had used real events as background for his own character.

Creating a feeling of reality is good, but what this man had done was basically to twist reality around his golden boy so he could crank out another book. And as it turned out, he’d been doing so for years. On the one hand, you have to admit he has the skill to weave fiction and reality together, and the dedication to do his cultural research. On the other hand, he was writing about real events, real deaths and misery, and then dropping his toy hero in the midst of it all and prevailing against great odds, tumbling a few supermodels between the sheets as he went.

I don’t like to read that author as much anymore. It just feels horribly respectless to use real events like that. People have died, families have suffered, and he makes a buck off of it. Writing about real events so that they won’t be forgotten is one thing, but this isn’t in the same league at all.

This is, of course, just my opinion. Fictionalizing real events feels a little icky, it doesn’t honour the real people and their feelings to my way of thinking. Giving an accurate account of a real person is fine. Creating a fictional character who is aware of great developments elsewhere in his/her world and having those be real events is fine. Now, I like ‘elsewhere’-scenarios. Thinking about the ways things could have gone differently is fine. But if you do that, make clear it’s an elsewhere. Having a disclaimer at the front of the book only takes a few seconds of your time, and I think it’d be easier on some people’s feelings.

Boy, am I late this week! *cough* Well, I have a life outside of writing, too.

Without further ado, let me ramble a bit about battles on Overshadowed Earth. I will assume that everyone who reads this blog post has been exposed to the concept of magical combat. Whenever there is more than one person with access to special powers, it seems to be inevitable that magical battles will erupt. This as as true in Star Wars as it is in Harry Potter. Magical battles are grand affairs, where the author can allow their imagination to run wild. Fireballs fly across the battlefield, allies from beyond are summoned to fight, walls of ice and stone arise to block enemy moves… You can go buck wild.

It’s not the only way a battle can go, however. One of my favourite authors of all time, Dutch Tais Teng, described a battle between two archmages. They agreed on a location, arrived there, said hello and went into a tent together. They talked a little, and a few minutes later one man came out while the other lay stone dead on the ground. This was still a battle of significant magic, but instead of it being a battle of spells of destruction, it was a battle of names and symbols. Just as deadly, but a lot easier on the real estate.

There are any number of ways that a magical battle can shape up, depending on the tradition used by the combatants. When magical battles erupt on Overshadowed Earth (this does not happen as often as might be hoped by readers, but more often than the natives find desireable), there are certainly mages who follow the philosophy that big explosions make for a great way to determine who was right and who was wrong. But a powerful Mage could just as easily fill his opponent’s mind with illusions, leave them trapped forever in a dream. Or they could try to control their enemy’s mind more directly, attempt to enchant and dominate their foes with spells. There are as many different strategies as there are different people.

Now you may wonder what happens if a magic-user takes the field against someone without magic powers. Is it an instant slamdunk? If the mage is powerful, smart and skilled, it might be. But it doesn’t have to be.

A physical combatant who is quick enough on the uptake could run at a mage and beat them up, dodging spells as best they can. It’s not a perfect method (some spellcasters have the willpower to pull off fairly impressive moves even when being beaten), but it’s better than just standing there while someone fireballs you.

A psychic has the advantage of speed over most mages, who need to chant spells and make gestures. An expert who has gotten to the point that they only need the right thoughtform to activate a spell might approach psychics, who by definition use their abilities at the speed of thought. Not every psychic is going to be powerful enough to hurt, frighten or even kill an opponent, but they can distract people and hide themselves, raise minor obstacles and read their opponent’s mind to anticipate the next attack.

And of course there is the great equalizer: technology. While spells and psychic tricks exist that can protect the user against many weapons, it is difficult to sustain a barrier that is being fired on by a machine gun. Anyone and everyone can pick up a gun, floor the gas pedal to a heavy truck or get on an aeroplane and leave for foreign parts.

Fights can be decided by superior abilities on Overshadowed Earth, but even an archmage is not wholly invulnerable. Preparation, experience and keeping a new trick up your sleeve for every new situation are more likely to yield success to combatants.

In writing terms, this means you need to get creative for every battle. Fortunately, this can be a lot of fun…